The Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase is set to retire from public service today, having attained the compulsory retirement age of 60 years and served for 35 years.

Arase, Nigeria’s eighteenth Inspector-General of Police, was appointed in April 2015 after former President Goodluck Jonathan sacked his predecessor Suleiman Abba.

The outgoing IGP who hails from Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, was born on June 21, 1956 and joined the Nigerian Police in December 1981.

He has degrees in Political science and Law from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and University of Benin respectively. He is also a Fellow of the Nigerian Defence Academy.

Meanwhile speculations have been rife as to who will succeed Arase as the new IGP.

Some analysts, citing the federal character principle, are of the opinion that the new IGP should be from the North Central or from the South East.

The distribution of all the service and security chiefs shows that while the North-East has the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Air Staff, the North-West has the DG DSS, the South-West has Chief of Defence Staff and the South-South has Chief of Naval Staff and police IG, while the South-East and North-Central have none.